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Physical and Cognitive Development
By Rhonda Crabbs
Shade Tree Learning
Where learning is fun, no matter what your age!
301 Linda Dr.
Burleson, TX 76028
682-478-7417
Physical and Cognitive Development
As a result of this training, the participant will be able to:
1. Explain the different between fine and gross motor skills and how they relate to each other.
2. Explain Piaget’s Theory of child development for infants, preschoolers and school age children.
3. Explain how language develops.
Introduction
As we work with young children we have to remember that they are constantly changing. By understanding the pattern of change that the majority of children process through, we are able to help see red flags when present. We are also better able to provide developmentally appropriate activities, classrooms, and interactions when we understand what the children in our class are able to accomplish. This self-study class focuses on basic physical and cognitive development of children.
Prenatal Development
From one month to four months of conception the brain had neuron cells emerging at 50,000 to 100.000 a second. These neurons send out long tree branch like fibers, called synapses, which connect with other neuron cells. Once a child is born, they have all of their 100 to 200 billion neurons and each neuron has approximately 2500 synapse. During the middle three months of pregnancy, the brain increases in size about six times. During the fourth week of pregnancy, the embryo’s head starts to take shape. The face starts to form including the eyes, ears, nose and mouth. By the end of the fourth month, the infant’s face is fully formed. By the time an infant is at the age of being able to survive outside of the womb, typically about 22 weeks after conception, the infant is able to hear through is fully functioning ears. This sweet infant that is born has already been developing physically for nine months before they are actually born. We can’t forget the importance of that time.
Prenatal Issues
It is important for expected women to stay away from massive radiation, either at one time or through repeated exposure. During the pregnancy, if women are exposed to massive radiation it might cause microcephaly (small head) or mental retardation. At this time, there is a correlation between massive radiation exposure and brain damage, but concrete proof has been established yet.
When expected mothers are exposed to pollutants in their environment there is a correlation to brain damage. These pollutants could be lead, mercury, pesticides, herbicides and cleaning supplies. Small dosages of common substances might be harmless, but for the sake of their unborn child, pregnant women need to remember to not drink well water, wash their fresh foods, and refrain from using chemical cleaning supplies.
When families live in poverty they have a harder time providing nutritious meals and safe water for the expected mother. This malnutrition that the expected mother has may interfere with the child being carried to full term delivery. When a fetus is not able to develop fully in the womb, his brain development is cut short. An infant is unable to develop his brain in the same manner as if he was still in the womb. This inability for full brain development can be associated with multiple brain development complications such as bleeding in the brain and learning disabilities (March of Dimes, 2011).
It is important for expected mothers to reduce their stress by finding healthy ways to relax and rest. When an expected mother is stressed, the tension she has can disrupt proper fetal brain development. An expected mother should lower her stress as much as possible and as quickly as possible after conception. Some conditions that cause stress, such as racism and discrimination, are harder to lower than others but expected mothers should do as much as they can. When a pregnant woman is stressed, the fetus might grow slowly, be born prematurely, and affect the fetal nervous system. An infant being born early or one that is very low birth weight at birth has multiple complications that could occur including failure to thrive and small growth as a child.
Thalidomide is a drug which treats cancer and different HIV health complications. During the critical period of 34-50 days after a women’s last period, taking thalidomide can increase the risk of birth defects affecting the arms and legs by 20% or more. Marijuana use by the mother or by others who are around the expected mother can have ill effects on the unborn child. Marijuana use has been linked to infants being born with central nervous system issues and slow fetal growth.
Physical Development
Infants and Toddlers
As an infant’s body grows, their birth weight will typically double by the child’s fourth month and triple by the infant’s first birthday. As the child develops between their first and second birthday their weight growth will slow down; however is still more rapid than any of their future years of life. When a child has their second birthday they are typically approximately 30 pounds. This rapid weight gain makes an infant be four times the weight at birth and approximately 20 percent of the typical adult weight.
Infant’s height changes very rapidly during their first year of life. By the time an infant reaches his second birthday he will typically be between 32 and 36 inches. This rapid growth in height means that the typical infant will be approximately half of the height they will be as an adult. The infant’s height will increase about 30% within the first five months and increased by 50% by the child’s first birthday. When an infant is born, his head measures typically 2 centimeters bigger than the infant’s chest measurement. Before the child’s second birthday, his head measurement will typically be equal to his chest measurement. A newborn’s head circumference is typical between 33 and 35 cm but will grow in the first year of life. When an infant is born, their posterior and anterior fontanel is soft and open to allow for movement at birth. Between 6-8 weeks the posterior fontanel will be closed while the anterior fontanel will not be closed until the infant is between 12-18 months of age.
During the infant’s first year of life they have multiple first accomplishments. The infant’s body changes within this first year with these first accomplishments. The infant starts to grow hair, cut their first teeth, take their first step and say their first word within the first year of life. As all of these first occur, the child’s body is going through changes. The child’s leg muscles are not strong enough in the first eight months to support his weight, nor are the muscles coordinated enough for the child to have control over the movements. As his body matures he will gain the strength and coordination to take his first step.
As an infant grows, their brain’s neurons send out connections that overlap each other. These connections are called synapses. As the child has experiences with their environment and the people in it, the synapses start to form connections between the brain cells. When synapse that were formed already, are no longer needed due to different experiences, they will break away. Though this process happens throughout our life, during the first year the child’s experiences set the foundation for ultimate connections to be formed. By the time a child is two years old, they have at least 1,000 trillion brain synapses. The different synapses occur on different areas of the brain depending on the infant’s experiences and interactions with others. Since the time in an infant and toddler’s life where the brain is connecting so many synapses is temporary and not found at another time in the child’s life it is called transient exuberance?
Infants do not need fancy toys to help their brain grow and expand. The child will make sure to find items to listen to or watch that are easily available to them. This internal drive within the infant is called self-righting and it helps an infant to remedy deficits. It is this drive that infants have to stimulate their brain that helps it to develop and grow more synapse connections.
An infant’s area of his brain that regulates his breathing is called the subcortical area, and it develops first right after birth. As an infant’s brain grows through his first two years, the cerebral cortex has structural and functional changes occurring at the same time and dependent of each other. The cerebral cortex allows for cognitive and perceptual development to occur not only during the first two years of life, but throughout life. The prefrontal cortex is the area of the brain that regulates impulse control, planning and anticipation is the last part of the brain to develop. During infancy it is inactive and creates the situation where an infant is unable to stop crying due to being told to. For an infant to stop crying because he was told to requires the infant to be able to make a decision, which he is unable to due to his prefrontal cortex not being developed.
When an infant is born, the movement that their limbs have is not controlled, but more reflex movements. As the infant grows, they develop control over their movements. By four months of age, the child can reach for an object but unable to grasp it. Their fingers have not gained control of when to close so they typically close too late or too soon. An infant is able to have better control over their limb movements to grasp objects. As the infant continues to grow and develop their movement control toward the end of their first year, they start to develop the ability to use the pincher grip, using their forefinger and thumb to grasp tiny objects.
An infant’s senses develop quickly within the first few months of life. When an infant is first born, his eyes are open but he is unable to see clearly and his vision is blurry. Within the first few weeks of life, infants are able to use their near vision better so that a person or object that is 8-15 inches away from the infant is within their vision field. By two months, the infant’s visual cortex are more developed so he can see clear and be able to be tentatively involved in looking at his caregivers. By three months old the infant is able to look at more details then before. They can focus on specific areas of their caregiver’s face like the eyes or mouth. The three month infant shows a preference for photos that have full featured faces instead of ones that only has certain face features. Three month old infants also show an interest in patterns, colors and movement as they watch in their environment. An infant is able to focus both eyes, called binocular vision, at about 14 weeks of age.
Preschool
As a child grows between two and three their ability to move, twist and have control over their limbs improves. The child between 3 and 6 no longer needs to have their legs apart for balance when standing upright. The child is able to walk with their toes forward and with their feet closer together. These changes occur during the second year of life and by three years of age, their body becomes more streamline and is not as top heavy as during infancy.
Children between two and six physically continue to grow; however this growth becomes slower than in infancy. By two years of age, a typical child weights approximately 20 pounds and is between 32 and 36 inches in height. When a child reaches the age of six years old, they typically weight about 47 pounds and is typically three and half to four feet tall. A child that is able to have quality nourishment will gain approximately 41/2 pounds per year between the ages of two and six.
With the child’s slower growth rate a decrease in the child’s appetite occurs during the two to six year old age period. This lower appetite means that parents and caregivers must make sure to provide even more quality of food and nutrition. With sugary food, children are being left with improper consumption of many minerals, vitamins and nutrients like calcium, zinc and iron.
When a child is two years old, their prefrontal lobe is very immature in development; however as a child grows between three and four, the prefrontal lobe starts to develop into maturity but not completely for many years. The prefrontal lobe controls reasoning, planning, delay in gratification and impulses. The development of this area of the brain shows researchers solid reasons as to why two year old children typically are involved in temper tantrums, while by the age of four years, children are able to have much better emotional regulation.
A two year old brain weighs approximately 75 % of an adult’s brain; however a five year old brain weighs approximately 90% of an adult’s brain. The growth period between two and five allows for a fatty coating, called Myelin, coats the axons and helps to speed up the signals between the brain neurons. The ability to speed up the signals that are developing in the child’s brain helps their ability to speed up their through process, especially when a situation arises for the child to use multiple thoughts at one time.
School Age Children (Called Middle Childhood)
Children will gain on average, five to seven pounds of weight each year during their middle childhood years. On average, boys typically weigh a pound or two more than girls at the beginning of the middle childhood years. Between the ages of 7 and 11, this typically balances out and by the end of the 11th year, boys and girls weigh approximately the same.
As children move from the early childhood years into the middle childhood years their coordination, speed, accuracy of movement and strength increases. During the middle childhood years, children are able to have more muscle control and better balance then they did before, partially due to the physical growth in height and weight. With this increase in muscle control, they are able to refine both gross motor movement and fine motor movement better than in previous age ranges.
Children in the middle childhood years do not grow in height as rapidly as in their earlier life. Typically, children in the middle childhood age range grow two to three inches every year. By the end of their 11th year, the typically child will be approximately five feet tall.
Physical maturation and puberty start to occur in many children during the middle childhood years. Typically, girls start their onset of pubertal changes between 8 and 14 years, while boys begin between 9 and 15 years of age. Girls might start to have growth spurts, enlargement of breast tissues, and menstruation a couple of years later, while boys will start with increase in testicular size and a growth spurt.
As the child grows between 7 and 11 years of age, their brain is able to be interconnected well, which helps them to have a reduction in reaction time (Berger, 2009). This reduction in reaction time helps the child’s eye-hand coordination
With the developing brain during middle childhood, children are able to practice activities and information until it becomes a routine. This brain develop is called automatization because the child is able to create an automatic response through these activities and information repetition sequences. This ability is very important during the middle childhood years because it helps the child to accomplish multiple skills and abilities. When the child’s brain is able to automatically accomplish simple and repeated task, the child is able to concentrate more on harder, newer task they are still challenged by.
With the middle childhood child’s brain having neurological advances, the child is able to organize and process multiple pieces of information in different areas of the brain at one time. The brain develops Selective Attention, which is the ability for the child to concentrate on specific information, while ignoring other information at the same time. This ability allows a child to be able to concentrate on specific information in school while listening to lectures and taking notes, but being able to ignore the possible distractions in the classroom.
Cognitive Development
Infants
Sensorimotor Intelligence-- In the first month of life, the foundation for an infant to learn is developed through senses and reflexes. This first stage of life is called the stage of reflexes. This is when the child’s sensorimotor intelligence starts to develop as reflexes start to begin being deliberate which will then bring about perception and then cognition (Berger, 2010). An infant in the first stage of reflexes has many reflexes that often adults do not realize. Some of these reflexes include breathing, eye blinking, rooting, and swallowing, which all are required for life (Worth Publishers, 2002).